Gov.uk

Tuesday October 16th, 2012

Finally, it is out of beta.

First impressions?

It’s snappy and on the iPhone and iPad, the responsive web design kicks in beautifully.

GOV UK on the iPhoneGOV UK on the iPad

It is clear knowing what you are looking forward to and the use of colours works very well guiding you what you are looking for. County councils in the UK, please take note. This is what you all should have been doing instead of making the content looks like vomit.

GOV UK Search

There is just one mishap about this site. It is tiny and yet revealing about how designers and developers are not quite understanding about how to handle video for the web. I believe a high percentage of them need to relearn about accessibility again. Remember this. Without proper working video content for all on the web, you are fast becoming sitting ducks liable to be sued by various groups like RNIB, etc.

The page I am talking about is Take The Tour.

GOV UK - Take the tour video issues

Flash? How come the government is relying on an old piece of crap that doesn’t exists on the mobile/tablet platform? Also, it doesn’t present itself all too well.

After loading Google Chrome, something else has struck me. The transcript.

And then what if someone is viewing this on a smaller screen? When the video is playing and you have to read a transcript at the same time? That means we have to scroll up and down the page to follow the video. Subtitles/captions/transcript are meant to go on the video and with the options to switch it on and off. Go and look at what YouTube have done, Netflix, Apple TV or your blu-ray/dvd player.

Google Chrome showing Gov UK video with transcript opened.

What about other languages? French, German, Chinese, Arabic, the list is endless. The UK is a huge multi-cultural country and they need full access to the website. I’m sure it is on the list somewhere on the web team’s whiteboard. HTML5 video is maturing and at a very slow pace at the moment when it comes to subtitles/captions. We need more people to develop and produce better understanding on how this should work.

After all, it is the little things that counts.

Update: @gdsteam tweeted:

@craigbutcher this is a known issue and on our list. In meantime captions are on YouTube version http://youtu.be/kvVaUBEibXo @GOVUK #govuk @gdsteam

I’m happy there is a YouTube version and believed it should be placed on the website for the time being until a true solution is found – this will force the team to work towards a better solution to avoid using YouTube. If there is a video issue and the site is ready to go, I would have held it back until that is completed and launch from there.